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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lkdood" data-source="post: 7627920" data-attributes="member: 92282">Rajapaksa  signs deals with India; minister opposes it in ColomboPresident Mahinda Rajapaksa talked cooperation and signed seven pacts  with India on Wednesday during his ongoing India visit. But in Colombo,  a cabinet minister and one of Rajapaksa's most vocal allies spewed  venom against Sri Lanka's biggest and closest neighbour. Wimal Weerawansa, minister for construction and engineering services,  let out a volley of criticism against Sri Lanka signing the  Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India. It would allow India to fill-up the island nation with Indians,  Weerawansa, also the leader of the National Freedom Front, told  reporters. The CEPA was ``not an agreement but a ploy to fill the island with  Indians," charged Jathika Nidahas Peramuna (JNP) leader Wimal  Weerawansa,'' a news website Ada Derana reported. A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) currently exists between the two  countries. According to Weerawansa, the existing agreement allows more import of  materials to the island. ``But CEPA will open the gates for workers too  to flood the island,'' he said. Weerawansa alleged that even now Indians who arrive here on tourist  visas work in the fields in the north and sometimes leave with the  harvests as well.  Weerawansa is perceived to be close to Rajapaksa and one of the few  to have spoken openly about doing away with the two-term or six-year cap  for Presidency; thus clearing the way for Rajapaksa to fight for the  third term. He, however, is not the only one talking against Sri Lanka signing  CEPA.   Weerawansa's former radical Marxist allies of the Janatha Vimukhti  Peramuna (JVP)-he broke away two years ago -- have also raged against  the agreement, alleging that it would be a negative step for the local  economy. Sri Lanka's service sector would be flooded by Indian service  industry personnel, they have argued. But what has surprised many here is the timing of Weerawansa's tirade  against India when Rajapaksa was in India. One analyst said it could be  an effort to show that Rajapaksa was trying to reach out to New Delhi  in spite of so much criticism and anti-India emotion at home.hindustantimes</blockquote>

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